California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs new law protecting LGBTQ+ students from being outed

California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed a new law that protects teachers from getting fired if they refuse to out trans students to their parents, suggesting instead that educators should focus on educating children rather than monitoring their sexual or gender identity.

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“I just don’t think teachers should be gender police,” Newsom said at a press conference December 16.

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1955 in July. The new law, known as the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act (SAFETY), officially prohibits schools from disclosing a student’s sexual or gender identity or sexuality to their guardians without the student’s permission.

Newsom stressed the new law does not stop teachers from talking with parents but instead prevents districts from taking action against teachers who decline to do so.

“Teachers can still talk to parents. There’s nothing in that law that suggests teachers cannot engage parents if they’re concerned about the safety of the child,” Newsom said. “If that concern is around their sexual orientation, I find it curious, but to the extent that they feel that someone’s sexual orientation is a safety issue, then those teachers can continue as they have been able to engage parents. What they can’t do under the law is fire a teacher for not being a snitch.”

Newsom stressed the importance of these protections not just for the teacher but also for the students who often see a teacher as the only person with whom they can talk about their sexual or gender identity.

“Often they can’t confide with someone at home,” Newsom said. “They confide with a teacher. And a teacher may, in many ways, save their life. And I don’t think that teacher should be fired if that teacher doesn’t turn in that child.”

The bill was enacted in response to conservative districts in the state that enacted policies forcing school staff to disclose a student’s gender identity to their guardians if it does not match their sex at birth.

In July 2023, the state levied a $1.5 million fine against the Temecula Valley Unified School District after it refused to carry a textbook whose teaching materials contain a reference to the late gay politician Harvey Milk. One of the school board members had objected to the reference, calling Milk a “pedophile” during a school board meeting.

“If the school board won’t do its job by its next board meeting to ensure kids start the school year with basic materials, the state will deliver the book into the hands of children and their parents — and we’ll send the district the bill and fine them for violating state law,” Newsom said at the time.

The district eventually agreed to buy the textbooks.

In September of last year, a judge issued a permanent injunction against the Chino Valley Unified School District’s policy requiring parental notification when students requested to use a different name or pronoun or use facilities aligned with a gender identity that differed from their official documents.

The court let stand the section of the new policy that allowed parental notification about changes to a student’s official or unofficial school records.

Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California, told Cal Matters the new law touted by Newsom last week “could not be more timely” following the actions by school districts in Chino and Temecula.

“LGBTQ+ youth can now have these important family conversations when they are ready and in ways that strengthen the relationship between parent and child, not as a result of extremist politicians intruding into the parent-child relationship,” Hoang wrote.

Questions remain about whether some districts will enact new policies that violate the new state law.

“You’ll have to ask the attorney general,” Newsom responded when asked if there would be any consequence for school districts that fail to comply with state law.